Involving a team of scientists from 11 countries, this project will measure the temperature, saltiness and flow speed of the water from continental shelf and slope, including under ice environments. This is something scientists know very little about, but the data are crucial for developing better global climate models. The few recent measurements we have suggest that the water close to Antarctica is getting fresher (less salty). But where is this extra fresh water coming from? Only by measuring – especially during winter – the properties of the water and how fast it is flowing will we be able to understand the processes that are going on, and make sure that these are put into our climate models correctly. There has never been a concerted effort to make measurements on the Antarctic continental shelf and slope during the winter. IPY is enabling everyone to work together to make this happen, by leaving instruments on the sea bed and in the water for a year, even when the ice is covering the sea surface above them. Each nation is going to deploy instruments so that a circumpolar coverage can be obtained for the first time. As well gathering data during IPY, some of SASSI's instruments will be left in place after IPY, providing an important legacy for future research.

Understanding the state of the cryosphere, and its associated past, present and future variability, is essential to understanding physical and biogeochemical interactions between the oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, social, cultural, and economic systems. This project will provide a framework for assessing the state of cryosphere. It will establish links with IPY projects involved in monitoring, assessing, and understanding the global cryosphere, and with projects involved in socioeconomic and cultural issues.

The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activity on Peoples in the Arctic Using a Multiple Securities Perspective From 2007-2010 a broad-based group of students and researchers from diverse backgrounds (political science to ecology) will take a human security approach to studying how oil and gas development will affect Arctic communities in Norway, Russia and Canada. By making human security central, we expect to connect Arctic peoples, researchers and policy makers in ways that will result in genuine listening and interaction among the groups.

Extending IPY Themes to the Undergraduate Earth System Science Education Community "The NASA/USRA Earth System Science Education for the 21st Century program (ESSE 21) engages interdisciplinary college and university teams to develop courses, curricula and degree programs that consider air, water, land and life processes on Earth. IPY research on polar processes will enrich ESSE 21 learning materials with relevant and compelling content that explores the global impact of polar science. "

ArcticWOLVES is an international initiative developed for the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. The project will build a network of circumpolar wildlife observatories in order to assess the current state of arctic terrestrial food webs over a large geographical range. The network will provide baseline information to evaluate current and future population trends for a large number of species at several locations using standard protocols. Another aim of the project is to determine the relative importance of bottom-up (resources) and top-down (predators) forces in structuring arctic food webs, and how climate affects these trophic linkages.

Synchronized observations of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC), Aurora, and other large-scale polar phenomena from the International Space Station (ISS) and ground sites. Astronauts on the International Space Station will make observations of bi-polar phenomena in concert with scientists at polar-based ground sites. Space-based observations, on the length scale of half a continent, will augment ground-based measurements.

The Kinnvika project will re-open an old research station from the previous polar year to study Arctic Warming and Impact Research. The spectrum of projects from geosciences to the humanities, investigates how the environmental and anthropogenic dynamics have changed recently in comparison with past records of change from existing expedition logs and photographs, proxy climate data from ice-, lake- and sea-sediment cores, and dynamic studies both on terrestrial as marine ice. This is a major multi-national multi-disciplined project involving 26 working groups and more than 80 Principal Investigators.

Several traverses across Antarctica are occurring this season, studying the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. They all have very informative and helpful web pages, as well as daily or weekly updates about their progress. Previous Expeditions: More information on previous International Antarctic Traverses can be found on the following pages: Summary of International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expeditions (ITASE) Previous scientific traverses across East Antarctica almost fifty years ago Current Expeditions: ...

Three researchers from the University of Lapland's Arctic Centre are in Antarctica and are blogging their research and life there: Glaciologist-paleoclimatologist John Moore, geophysicist Aslak Grinsted and chemist Kristiina Virkkunen. Their blog is here. They are doing research on a blue ice area about 200 km from Abo...